By the middle of the next day, Faye and Gavan were miles further down the road to the city. Last night had been cold, but not enough that they risked an open fire. Though they were resting in the shadows of the foliage, there was not enough cover to protect them from spying eyes.

That morning, they had enjoyed a calming, brisk walk. Now that there was not as much danger every waking second, Faye had taken to studying the language primer she had been working through for weeks. Even that short break had been enough to let the script and words written inside to flow out of her ears like water.

Gavan had encouraged her to keep going. He had suggested that the system might assist her after a certain point.

Every break they took, she took the small book out of her pack and read through as much as she could over and over again.

In the middle of their midday break, however, Gavan had remained standing and was staring out across the landscape. The hillocks had given way to mile after mile of grassy plains, an almost endless sea of brown, coarse grass.

“Everything okay?” Faye asked.

Gavan shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

Putting the primer away and coming to her feet next to the mage, Faye looked across the grassy sea. The weak sun was relatively low in the sky, despite the time of day, so there were shadows. But even so it was easy to see that the plains were empty.

“There’s nothing out there,” she said.

“Exactly,” Gavan muttered. He pointed off to the south, to their right. “There’s a Steading a couple of hours off the road, they regularly let their animals graze this land.”

Faye frowned and looked across the empty grasslands once again.

“So, the animals are in a different place today?”

Gavan hummed. “I would normally agree, but after the weeks we’ve had it feels like too much of a coincidence.”

Faye looked south. “You said it’s a couple of hours away?”

“Directly off the road, aye.”

“Then we’d best get started.”

Neither of them was truly tired, after all, and Faye knew that leaving a potential problem behind would have gnawed at her. At least if there was nothing wrong, they would only lose a few hours. But the Steaders around Lóthaven were too important to leave facing threats alone.

The main reason it took so long to travel to the outskirts of the Steading was the grass, it came up above the knee and occasionally hid a rock, ditch, or other obstacle that made them trip more than once.

“Bloody hell!” Faye exclaimed after tripping for the fourth time in as many minutes. Gavan had grabbed her arm to stabilise her.

“The animals tear up the ground, and the Steaders often don’t do anything about it because the animals don’t care.”

Soon enough, they could make out the buildings of the Steading in the distance. Much like the first Steading she had visited, this one was made from giant hewn blocks of stone that created a central building that looked more like a fortress than a farm building. Surrounding it were the various other buildings that a Steading needed to survive.

Unlike the Bann Steading, this one had a collection of what looked to be ordinary houses to one side of the main building. As they got closer to the Steading proper, they did see some grazing animals, but Gavan cast a worried look over them and said that they were too few, and too thin.

“There’s something wrong here,” he said. “Be on the lookout.”

A few hundred metres away from the Steading, they came across a path that had been worn into the ground. It made the going much easier and Faye happily took the lead down the trail, not quite jogging but moving at a fair clip that had them approaching a short fence that stretched across the path at around forty metres from the Steading.

The path led them to a stile over the fence, which Faye navigated with ease. She had to wait a few seconds for Gavan to figure out where to put his feet. But he was soon over, too.

Following the path once again, they were led around to the east side of the Steading, there the path turned into the tamped down dirt and cobble of a farmyard. A few birds flitted back and forth from the Steading to the tops of the wooden outbuildings. They looked to be something like a stable but were quite small. Faye was not sure what the stalls could be used for, and they were each empty.

“You can wait there, if you please,” called out a voice.

Faye came to a stop and hooked her thumbs into her belt. Standing in the space where the path opened into a true yard was a thin man, wearing linen clothing that was loose around him. Loose enough to show that he had clearly been missing more than a few meals.

“Hi,” Faye called. “My name is Faye; this is my companion Gavan. We’re travelling out from Lóthaven.”

“Long way from the road, Faye and her companion Gavan,” came the man’s reply. “What brought you out this way?”

Gavan shifted but did not say anything. Faye shrugged.

“Knew you were out here, wanted to stop by, see if you were alright.”

The man cocked his head and just watched them for a few moments.

“Well, come on inside. We’ve got some food you can have.”

Faye nodded. “Perfect, thank you.”

She made to move forward, Gavan close behind, but the man had not moved. He sighed and Faye came to a halt.

What’s this?

The man shook his head and made to look over his shoulder but aborted the movement before he had fully completed it.

“Sorry, that was a test.”

Faye frowned. “What kind of a test? Did we pass?”

“Not sure.”

Gavan cleared his throat. “Where is the Steader?”

The man tensed. “What makes you think I’m not the Steader?”

Gavan clicked his tongue quietly before replying. “You are not the Steader.”

“Why do you—”

Before the man could finish what he was saying, a woman stepped out from behind the corner of the Steading. Her straw-coloured hair was tied back in a braid similar to the one Faye had taken to wearing recently. Her hard eyes bore into them.

“Alright, enough games. What are you on my land for?”

Gavan bowed his head a little. “Steader Einnua, I am glad you are well.”

The Steader, Einnua, nodded back. “For now, at least. You are adventurers, then?”

Faye nodded. “We are.”

The Steader waved a hand at them. “Come, let us greet one another properly inside.” She turned and disappeared behind the Steading’s wall, the thin man following her closely.

Faye dropped her voice. “What on earth was that about?”

“Not sure, but Einnua is not known for frivolity. Let’s see what she has to say.”

Stepping through the thick double doors of the Steading’s entryway was a much different feeling than when Faye had been at the Bann Steading. Where that Steading had felt like a home, albeit a large one, this felt like the farm shops that had been all the rage in certain parts of the country back home — wide open, lots of bare stone and wood decoration, and multiple people moving around in the large space.

She looked around and caught sight of approximately a dozen people. Each of them looked worse for wear, either in their clothing or their physical appearance.

There were no children in sight.

The thin man that had greeted them nodded as they stepped inside. He stuck out his hand, and Gavan stepped forward and grabbed it, forearm to forearm. Faye copied the gesture a moment later.

“My apologies for the greeting, adventurers,” the man said, “but times are hard. My name is Adan.”

“Good to meet you, Adan. Don’t worry about the greeting,” Faye said, “believe me when I say we’ve had worse in the past few weeks.”

Looking in Adan’s eyes, it seemed that he knew something of the same kind of struggle, because a moment later he blurted out, “so yer not both with those fucking cultists, are you?”

Every other head in the room locked on Faye and Gavan, including the stern face of Steader Einnua at the far right of the room.

Faye held up a hand. “We most definitely are not. I’m not from around here, I appreciate that, but surely someone recognises Gavan?”

Gavan looked about the room and shook his head. “I’m afraid I do not recognise anyone here. I know of Steader Einnua only by reputation. Our travels never brought us here before.”

The Steader spoke, and despite being at the far side of the room everyone was quiet enough that they could easily hear.

“We tend to our own flock, Adventurer, though from the look and feel of you, I’d say you’re telling the truth.”

Faye nodded. It was good that their leader was inclined to believe them.

What has them all riled up like this? she could not help but wonder.

“Have you met Primalists, recently?” she asked.

A few of the people scowled when she said the word, and Adan stepped back a little.

“How do you know what they’re called if you’re not with ‘em?” he asked, a quaver affecting his voice.

Gavan gestured to Faye. “My companion has a visual system. It informs her of the names of her defeated foes.”

A murmur broke out at that.

“The Primalists,” Faye said, “attacked Lóthaven.”

The murmur rose to a worried chatter. She held up her hands. “But the Guild and the Guard worked to eradicate the threat from the town. They were repelled. We are on our way to the city to report on events and gather resources. Any information you have on the last week or two would be welcome, we will take any reports with us to the Guild branch there.”

The people in the room all broke out into conversations. Faye half listened to a half dozen different conversations before Adan stepped forward and gestured for them to follow him. They went into the back of the room, an open doorway led to a kitchen area.

Rather than the smell of cooking food, the kitchen was practically empty. A large tub of boiling water rested over the fire, simmering away, but it looked as if it were only water. Steader Einnua was standing by the fire, and she moved the suspended tub of water off the flames as they entered.

“It is troubling,” she began without preamble, “to hear that the town was attacked. I had suspected something was wrong, for the cultists — these Primalists as you called them — to have come at us here. They did not have the look of the plains about them.”

Faye nodded. “They claim the forests to the northwest of Lóthaven.”

Steader Einnua nodded. “Sounds to me like they were ambitious folks.”

Faye hummed in response.

“In what way did you meet them here?” Gavan asked.

The Steader took a ladle to the tub of water and pulled out a few cupsful. These she put into earthenware mugs, the water steaming as it hit the cool mugs.

“They have been harrying us, for a season or more.”

Faye sucked in a breath. That might be the earliest activity of the Primalists they had heard of.

“We did not know it, at first,” Steader Einnua went on. She took a mug in each hand and approached Faye and Gavan. “If we had, I would have sent word.”

They accepted a steaming mug each. Faye murmured her thanks. When she looked down into the mug, she realised with a start that it was just hot water. She looked up into the grim eyes of their host.

“There is nothing else,” she said. “They have poisoned our supplies.”

Faye sighed out a curse. “When?”

“A week ago. The attacks on the animals were bad enough, I lost half my herds through harrying strikes. But then they came for us directly. There were only a handful, but they had a swarm of monsters with them. IT was then I realised that they had been the ones directing monster attacks against us for a season or so.”

The Steader sighed and sipped from her own hot water. Adan had approached the Steader and accepted his own hot water.

“It’s a fact of life,” he said, a moment later, “the monsters will attack the herds. That’s what we’re for. We protect the animals.”

Faye looked over Adan. He did not look like the type able to protect anything, but she held her reservations in check. This was a world where she could literally call fire into being from pure magic. She was sure a man that looked scrawny could hold many secrets.

“But,” the Steader continued, “the monsters were never this organised or ferocious. They targeted the herds least protected. Switching the timing, approach, and method of attack each time. We were hard pressed to save any of the animals.”

“How did you?” Gavan asked.

“Brought them in from pasture early,” Adan said. “Got them into the inner fields ahead of season’s end. Helped concentrate our forces, though they still got through, the bastards.”

“That’s what ended up with our stores poisoned,” the Steader said. She sighed again. “It’s why we asked if you wanted some food. Thought maybe that if you knew it was poisoned you would say no.”

Faye frowned. “What if we just weren’t hungry?”

The Steader looked at her.

“Then we’d have run you off.”

Faye flicked [Mana Sense] on and examined the pair in front of her. There was a concentration of mana around, but it was nowhere near as potent as what she would have seen at the Guild. She was not sure that the Steader and her men would have been able to run them off, but she refrained from suggesting so.

“Are the Primalists still around?” Gavan asked. He was still holding his mug, but he had not drunk a single drop. Faye had already sipped a few times. A hot drink was always a comfort to her, despite the lack of proper tea or coffee.

The Steader shrugged. “Not sure. We figured they were, but the attacks slowed to normal for this time of year, near nothing, and we haven’t seen a single out of place shadow otherwise.”

Faye looked to Gavan, who seemed to have the same idea dancing behind his eyes. “We’ll check out the area for you,” she said. She looked back. “Least we can do.”

Adan let out an audible sigh. “Any chance you got any food, too?”